


It Was The Beginning

by Mandergee



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Bahrain, F/M, Gen, No spoilers other than mention of Bahrain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-02
Updated: 2015-04-02
Packaged: 2018-03-20 20:18:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3663615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mandergee/pseuds/Mandergee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Melinda May was sent, with a team of other agents, to Bahrain. She was able, as we know, to get everyone out unharmed...</p>
<p>It was the beginning...and it was the end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It Was The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> So I stumbled across a challenge to write a drabble (or something) prompted by a word, for 30 days. The first word was 'beginning', and I thought I'd write a nice little fanfic to start it out.

It was the beginning, and she wished it was the end.

Melinda stood over the piles of unconsciousness and wondered how she'd gotten there. Her head hurt- she wasn't sure if it was because the last one had struck her temple before he had fallen, or if it was a plain and simple headache. It had been so long since she'd had one...but tai chi drove away the demons and with them the headaches they'd once caused, so the memory of the last jarring headache was vague. But this- it tore at the insides of her skull, made her eyes water until the tears dripped down her cheeks, and she wondered if she was really crying.

“ _Agent May_ .” The voice crackled in her ear and made her jump, the familiar timbre sinking in and slowing her heartbeat as she let her fingers unclench, focused on her breathing again. “ _Melinda. Report.”_

“Everything...”  _Is fine. Isn't fine. I don't know, Phil. I don't even...I don't._ “I'm on my way out. Alone. Stand by.” 

“ _The hostages made it past the barricade. We'll be watching for you. Coulson out._ ” The balm of his voice in her head was gone and the pain took over again, a crippling agony that crested in waves until she sunk to her knees on the hard concrete floor and felt the cold through the leather of her catsuit. When she'd put it on the first time she remembered thinking she looked a bit like Catwoman in the comics, was secretly glad hers hid the stitching better and didn't include a mask with wide, gaping eyeholes. For a moment she could remember how Phil had looked at her when she'd stepped out of the plane's lavatory, and his eyes had glazed over in the same way they had the first day they'd met.

_I didn't...I don't know what happened here. I don't know who I am._

When she strode out twenty minutes later, she still didn't know. Tried to hide it when the agents overseeing evacuation asked for her translation skills, let her take point with the few hostages who spoke Mandarin or could handle the mangled Spanish she was able to manage. Phil had better skills in Spanish than she did, but he was gone-giving Fury a report from the radio on the plane and waiting for her to return with the rest of the team.

He found her later, in her bunk, seated on the edge of her mattress in black bra and underwear, staring at the crumpled suit on the floor.  


“You managed to get everyone out safely. The Director sends his congratulations.”

“What for?” She whispered, and he stood still as she closed her mouth again. And kept it closed.

It was the beginning...and then it was the end of her. 

She didn't know if that was okay. Or if she would ever be.


End file.
